Category: Uncategorized

Books, Film, Uncategorized

How to Use My Reviews

pcamper

Happy Monday!

I know I didn’t post a review this past week, and even though that might have been a bummer for everyone, I thought it might be better to write a post explaining how (and why) I rate the way I do.

After five films reviewed, I figured posting a scale would help readers understand my review at a glance:

10 –  So good I’ll be paying to see it in theater twice.
  9 –  Definitely something you should watch in theater.
  8 –  Highly recommend it, but if you miss it in theater not a big deal.
  7 –  I recommend it, but wait to catch this on home video.
  6 –  If it’s on TV or Netflix, it’s not a total waste of time.
  5 –  If you never see it, you won’t be missing out.
  4 –  Not worth your time.
  3 –  Not worth my time.
  2 –  Why was this movie made?
  1 –  I’ll be suing for my money back.

And for those of you who followed me hoping to read more book reviews and wondering what my scale is for those…

I don’t have one.

I spent a full day trying to think of a good way to structure a rating system for books and came to the conclusion it’s better not to have one. When I watch film, I either like it or I don’t. There are very few instances where I dislike a film but appreciate the art behind it (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is one).

With literature, I can easily think of a dozen books that I did not enjoy reading but still appreciated the author’s style or tone or character development. I don’t have the same level of objectiveness for novels as I do for film. It takes me two hours to consume a movie. It takes me two weeks to properly absorb a book for critique. I become invested in what I’m reading. The best I can do is write out my thoughts and let others decide if the book will be worth their time.

So whether you’re looking for film or book reviews, I hope this post helps you to understand my process a bit. Thank you to all of my readers and followers. Your feedback and comments are always welcome and they certainly make my work feel meaningful.

 

Have a good week everyone!

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How You Can Spot a Professional

pcamper

People will sometimes say you can spot a writer. The man with the long hair, somewhat disheveled, but relatively respectable, is a writer (think Bradley Cooper in Limitless). That female with the end of a pen between vibrant red lips is a writer.

Like all stereotypes, these descriptions have some merit. But they are not blanket identifiers. Just like all heroes don’t have muscular builds and blue eyes, or all evildoers don’t have brooding expressions and thin faces. I’m a writer and I tend towards more of a business casual than anything else.

But there is one stereotype that will makes a load of difference in your life. That stereotype is The Professional.

I’m sure you’ve seen the men and women I’m talking about. The man in suit and tie, carrying a briefcase and looking at his watch like he’s late. The woman in fashionable heels and a power suit – feminine and strong. These are people that make you stop and wonder what they do for a living. They are people that you might pay attention to when they speak. When operating in a business setting it is of utmost importance to represent yourself in a way that other people will respect you. Not every job is going to require suit and tie, but every job will require your commitment.

Today I went to speak with someone about my cover letter. This is a service almost every professor of mine has recommended, so I thought getting some extra help with securing a job would be a good idea. From the moment I walked in I stopped listening. The receptionist had her headphones in and didn’t notice when I walked up. The woman reviewing my occupational materials was wearing sweatpants, sweatshirt, and Uggs. These are not people whose advice I’d consider worthwhile.

I did force myself to listen, and the lady whose advice I was receiving was, in fact, helpful. But when I left her office I felt cheated in some way. This was supposed to be a professional meeting, yet it felt like I’d walked into a college campus lounge. I craved that professionalism.

And that is a key I’d suggest to anyone wishing to impress. Dress for the occasion. Even overdressing is often better than underdressing because we, as humans, crave that look of professionalism. We want to feel like our time has not been wasted. We want to speak with someone more knowledgeable than us because we are looking to learn something. Looking the part is half the battle of making someone think you are qualified. And when somebody pauses to think about what skills you possess that he or she may or may not…

Well that’s not such a bad thing, is it?

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Writing (and Living) for That “Ah-ha!” Moment

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This semester I am enrolled in two writing workshops. When I mentioned this to one of my professors, he asked me, “Are you nuts?” It was far too much reading and writing. I would never be able to keep up with my schoolwork.

I still wanted to do it.

For me, writing is much more than a job or a grade – it’s my passion. I write because I want to and not because somebody tells me I have to. Of course, having a deadline is fairly persuasive in getting me to want to write, but that’s beside the point.

Writing is important to me because, in a lot of ways, writing is like life. It’s life, only it’s told through a specific lens. One book’s lens may be focused on Harry Potter while another book’s lens may be focused on Mr. Bucklesby who goes for a walk through Central Park every Tuesday with his wife. Books, and the writing within those books, show us truths about our lives that we sometimes forget or don’t even know.

It is my job and the job of fellow writers to tell those truths. The only trouble is that sometimes we writers don’t always get it right.

That’s why my writing workshops are so important to me. I can write what I see to be the truth and then have twenty fellow writers point out flaws in my interpretation of the truth  and suggest better ways to tell that truth. I will make mistakes, but I have people to help me along and reach my goal.

The other day in my writing workshop a fellow writer was having trouble depicting the struggle between the father of a son that drowned and the boy who was responsible for the son’s death. All of us around the table were bouncing suggestions off one another until a suggestion of how the two would interact and what they would say suddenly made all twenty of us pause and say, “Ohhh!”

Such agreement amongst writers is legendary. But that’s what we are working for: that “Ah-ha!” moment.

Life is the same. Nobody knows the meaning of life (unless you consider the answer to be 42). We have to make choices that we think are best and, more often than we’d like, we make mistakes. Of course, there are almost always people looking to help us out and point us in the right direction again. We can only hope that we’ll finally zero in on the answer to a perfect life. Then, when we have the answer, we can all pause, sit back, and say, “Ohhh!”

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Deadlines, Borrowed Time, and Excuses

pcamper

As summer drew to a close, I found my attention being drawn away from my newly begun blog. Between the edits for my manuscript, moving into my off-campus housing, and preparing for the beginning of another college semester, blogging fell by the wayside.

And yet I had promised to become a true blog presence. For heaven’s sake, my first post is titled “Committing to the (Blog) Job!”

I failed to follow up on my promise, and I tried explain away why I had not posted for some time. So my reasoning behind not blogging must be considered an excuse. The lecturer for one of my classes this semester introduced the quote, “Excuses are the bricks that build the house of failure.” As much as I hate to admit it, she’s right. If I had continued to come up with excuses for why I couldn’t post, this blog would have been pointless. I probably would have never added another article.

And yet, here I am. I am once again typing away on my laptop. I will admit, as I write, it is quite late, but that is what it takes. You have to find time to complete your tasks, even if you have to borrow time. As a college student, I have classes, work, a social life, and – until this year – 5:30AM practice with the OSU rowing team six days per week. Where in the world can I find time to fit in a consistent blogging lifestyle?

I borrow time.

Some days I have to stay up a little later, borrowing some time from sleeping. Other days, going out with my friends can wait an extra half hour in order to complete my next post. There are minutes wasted in the day when I’m sitting idly on Facebook or Twitter. If I take those minutes to do something more productive, suddenly I’ve accomplished something I didn’t think I could.

Borrowing time is easier said than done, unfortunately. Yes, there is a large amount of time wasted on the Internet, but how many of us really want to give up our social media? And then of course, there is the ever-faithful couch or bed. Sure, I could write a post, but a nap sounds so much better. Why would I borrow time from these other activities that seem so important?

So my final piece of advice when it comes to avoiding excuses and getting things done is to make deadlines for yourself. Don’t pick a random date, because that’s all it is: random. Can’t you make another excuse to push the date back a little?

Chose a date that has some significance. When I graduated high school, I realized that I had been working on my novel manuscript for five years, and had barely made a dent in it. So I set a deadline at the end of the summer. I knew that if I did not finish my book before I began college, I’d never find the time to properly finish writing. I started with 30 type-written pages in July of the year. I finished with 185 pages before I left for college in August.

We all know how intimidating a good deadline is, and we all know how quickly everything moves out of the way to meet that deadline. So make a good, hard deadline for yourself. You’ll start borrowing time from places you didn’t know existed. And above all else, you’ll be avoiding those excuses.

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Oh What a Beautiful Morning!

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Oh, what a beautiful day. I see skies of blue and clouds of white… and I think to myself, What a wonderful world.

Think about just how many songs, poems, and stories there are describing the beauty of the world around us. When I woke this morning, although I was somewhat upset to be up in the gray pre-dawn, I was up in time for the sunrise. The birds are chirping, the flowering bush outside my window is waving hello in a light breeze. The grass glistens with dew like a jeweled gift, jut for me.

There’s a reason why so many are inspired by the world around us. It’s beautiful. The trees, the grass, the sun, the water, and of course the people.

Never underestimate how beautiful people can be.

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Committing to the (Blog) Job

pcamper

So I’ve decided to start a blog.

Why? I always used to think blogs were a waste of time. Who would ever care what I wrote? When would I ever need a blog? And how in the world could I possibly manage to write consistently on the internet?

Well, times have changed. I’ve realized that blogs are important tools for advertising oneself, especially for an aspiring author such as myself. I still wonder who would ever want to go on the Internet to look up my writing, but if Facebook and Twitter are any indication, not only will people care about what I write, but I should be able to write something on a regular basis.

But there’s more to why I’m starting this blog than just the changing times. I was inspired. I have found the drive to do this and to stick with it. That’s probably the most important reason behind anything we do. We become inspired to do it. For example, I was inspired to sit my ass in a chair and finally write down the story that had been bouncing around in my head for years, and now I have a finished manuscript!

Okay, so inspiration is key. But where do we find our inspiration? Sometimes we get inspiration from unexpected places. I found inspiration to edit my manuscript (as I am currently doing) and rewrite the beginning while I was studying abroad in Croatia. The inspiration to start a blog came from a friend who had started her own. Then there is inspiration that comes from an uncompromising sort of determination.

Throughout my life I have managed to accomplish a great many things of which I am incredibly proud, so I know what it feels like to have that rush of elation, of satisfaction to know that it was ME that just did that. And when I encounter a new problem, I want to have that feeling again. I want to sit myself down and crank out that novel, or to sit down and write a blog post, because I know that when I commit to a job and finish it, I’ll be happy that I did it.